


Steady as the stars in the woods

by orphan_account



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, Alternate Universe- Flower Shop, M/M, MakoRin Week, Oral Sex, makoto eats ass, there is no other way to say it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-14
Updated: 2014-12-14
Packaged: 2018-03-01 11:05:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2770736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You know that really overdone au where character A sells flowers and character B does tattoos? This is one of those.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Steady as the stars in the woods

Makoto raps his pen against the desk, studying the tacky carpet patterning the floor and listening to the screams of pain coming from the back room. Their receptionist had caught a cold and convinced himself he was dying, refusing to come into work and leaving Makoto to man reception and Haru in charge of today’s customers. Idly doodling a sunflower, he wonders if it had been the best idea to leave a nervous person’s first tattoo to someone as blunt and uncomforting as Haru, but is pulled out of his worries by the sound of the door opening. His glance upwards becomes a double take as he takes in a sharp, surly frown, a pair of red eyes, and two sleeves of tattoos.

He stares, frozen, before the owner of the tattoos gives a short, awkward cough that wakes him from his state of bewildered attraction and snaps him into full receptionist mode.

“Hello! Those tattoos are very impressive, where did you get them done? Oh, right sorry, I’ll get your paperwork now, and you should probably get your ID out so that we can be sure you’re of age, and-” 

“I’m Rin.”

The out of place sentence stops Makoto in his tracks. “Uh, I’m Makoto? Do you want tattoos or piercings?”

“What? No! I’m not here for a tattoo!”

“Ok… What do you want pierced?”

“No, no! I work next door! I just got set up, and I came in to say hi!”

Makoto gapes at Rin as the pieces fall into place before collapsing onto the desk with his head in his arms. “Oh my _God_.”

“I’m sorry, I should have told you earlier that I didn’t want anythi-”

“No,  _I’m_ sorry, I just assumed, because of your arms-”

“That makes total sense, it’s my fau-”

“Don’t even try.” The sound of Haru’s voice makes them both jump, and he raises an eyebrow, leaning against the door of the tattooing room as the newly inked client stumbles past in a daze, throwing money onto the counter and shaking away. “Trying to out-polite Makoto is pretty much impossible.”

“Haru!”

“What?”

Makoto shakes his head. “This is Rin. He works next door.”

Haru’s eyes zero in on Rin’s tattoos and narrow. “Those are good. Did you do them? Are you doing tattoos next door?”

Rin grins. “No, I didn’t do these. My friend, Sousuke, he did them. I’m a florist. That’s what I’m doing next door."

Haru’s eyes widen. “Sousuke? Sousuke Yamazaki?”

_Shit._

Rin starts talking before Makoto can do anything. “Yeah, why? Wait, your name’s Haru, right? That’s not short for Haruka, is it?”

Haru turns on his heel and makes a swift exit.

“You’re Sousuke’s boyfriend! I think?”

“Not really.” Makoto says, and Rin slaps a palm to his face.

“Oh God. Sousuke went to see Haruka yesterday and he came home at 3 am reeking of tequila. Did they have another fight?”

“Haru put an entire jar of cinnamon in his croquettes today. They had a fight. And now is probably a good time to tell you that he hates being called Haruka."

“Fuck, he hates me now, doesn’t he?”

“He’ll get over it. Anyway, you’re a florist?”

“Yeah. Do you like flowers? You were drawing a sunflower when I came in.”

“Uh, yeah! Love flowers. They’re um. Really pretty.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

“Well. See you, Makoto."

Rin leaves, and Makoto buries his face in his hands.

 

The next day, Rin appears back in the shop and dumps a bunch of flowers on the desk. Haru, whose turn it was to take over for their still sick receptionist, had been the one Rin had given them to, and told Makoto that Rin had said that they were partially an apology to Haru for ‘Sousuke being an ass’, and also because Makoto liked them.

“He likes you.” Haru says, and Makoto drops the vase he’d been going to put the flowers in on his toe.

“Go talk to him.” Haru continues after putting an ice pack on Makoto’s foot, and then disappears to work on new designs.

Makoto takes Haru’s advice and hobbles into Rin’s shop after work on the pretence of practicing drawing flowers. Rin talks to him as he sketches, and he finds himself talking back and copying down the lines of Rin’s face as he throws his head back to laugh as Makoto imitates Haru.

“I work as a tattoo artist, but most days I can’t even draw my eyebrows on straight.” Makoto deadpans before joining in with Rin’s fit of laughter.

“Oh, man, he draws those on?”

“He fills them in, but if you ask me there’s more pencil than eyebrow there. I only just managed to convince him not to get them tattooed on. It’s so weird that he’s such an amazing artist, but he gets his eyebrows crooked and he stabs himself in the eye with eyeliner pretty much every day."

“He’s good at tattoos, though. Sousuke showed me a stick and poke he got done by him, and it was really, really wonderful.”

Despite himself, Makoto feels jealousy well in his stomach.

“I haven’t seen much of your art though, apart from the sunflower you did. That was really beautiful, by the way.”

Makoto blushes, jealousy gone. “That was just a little doodle though…”

“How about you show me some of your proper art, then?”

Rin reaches for Makoto’s sketchbook, and he slams it shut, realizing it’s still on his drawings of Rin. Rin draws back, hurt in his eyes, and Makoto scrambles to guiltily apologize.

“Sorry, sorry! It’s just that some of it's personal!”

“Oh, sorry! I won’t look, then.”

“No, no, it’s fine!” Makoto says, opening to the first page, and Rin cackles at a drawing of Haru,makeup smudged and bags under his eyes, sarcastically titled “sleeping beauty.” The next few pages are doodles of kittens, Haru with a huge beard, a “fuck you” and a drawing of Makoto with a cat’s butt from Haru, more kittens, a few tattoo sketches for clients that he’d particularly liked, a drawing of a cup of tea and some stars with followed by a note from Haru that says “fucking hipster” (he hadn’t seen that before, he’d have to get him back for that later), and then his sketches of flowers from that evening opposite a page of scribbles with various objects traced across their lines.

Rin stops there. “What’s this?” he asks, pointing to the scribbles.

Makoto grins. “Scribble wars. Haru and I used to play it when we were bored as kids. One person draws a scribble, and the other one finds an object in it and draws it. It’s really good for art block.”

“You spend a lot of time together, don’t you?”

“Yeah. We’ve known each other since we were little.”

There’s a flash of something in Rin’s eyes, but it’s gone as soon as he turns to the next page.

The one with Makoto’s drawings of him.

_Fuck._

Makoto moves to take the sketchbook, but stops once he sees that Rin’s already taken in the contents, and his reaction isn’t a negative one.

“You drew me?”

“I’m sorry! Your face is just really nice! To draw! I mean, you have a nice face in general, but it’s also really nice to draw. Yeah.”

Makoto’s a bundle of nerves, and it’s a sharp contrast to Rin’s dazed state as he runs his hand across Makoto’s drawing, head cocked the side.

“This is…"

“Creepy? I’m sorry!”

“No. It’s really wonderful, Makoto. Except you made me too pretty.”

“I’m sorry! That’s just how I see you!”

The tips of Rin’s ears blend into his hair, and he thrusts the book back into Makoto’s arms. After more frantic apologizing and insistence from a blushing Rin that he didn’t need to apologize, Makoto leaves the shop with his sketchbook, minus the page containing the drawing of Haru looking exhausted, and plus another sunflower from Rin in return for it.

 

Rin becomes a part of his daily routine, either coming round to the tattoo parlour with new flowers or simply to beg baked goods off Haru, who’s wearing slightly less heavy eyeliner, implying he’s back together with Sousuke, every day, or leaving his shop open later for Makoto to come in to draw and talk with him. It’s a couple of months later that Makoto finds himself studying the tattoos on Rin’s arms in the back room of the shop.

“Cherry blossoms, huh?”

Rin blushes. “They’re my favourite flower. Sousuke got really good at drawing them because I like them so much. These were his 18th birthday present to me, my first tattoos.”

Makoto nods, and points to a stick and poke shark on Rin’s shoulder. “And that one?”

“I made him dinner and let him stay at my place for a week. He said he owed me.”

“And these?” he says, gesturing towards the phases of the moon on Rin’s wrist.

“Oh, I did those myself.”

“They’re lovely.”

Rin looks away, reddening. Makoto loves it when he does that, and tries to make it happen as often as possible.

“What about you? Do you have any tattoos?”

“No, not really. Haru’s offered, but Ren and Ran won’t let him.”

“They’re your siblings, right? Why not?”

Makoto points to a faint pen line joining his freckles. “They like to join up my freckles, and they’re worried they’ll run out of space if Haru puts tattoos on me.”

Rin grins, grabbing a pen. “Can I try?”

“Of course.” Makoto smiles, and Rin sets to work, nose wrinkled in concentration, so cute that Makoto thinks that he could die here and now and be happy.

“Done!” Rin beams, indicating the small star he’s formed on Makoto’s arm.

“Thank you.”

“So, no tattoos… But they let you have piercings?”

“Yep!” Makoto smiles, running a hand over the piercings on his right ear.

“Are those your only ones?

“I have my stomach pierced, and one more.”

“Where?”

Makoto grins and sticks out his tongue.

Rin almost falls off his chair. “How have I never noticed that before?”

“Haru’s grandma is my main food source outside of mackerel, pastries, and mackerel pastries, and she doesn’t approve of piercings anywhere but ears. I wear a retainer stud or talk so you can’t see it most of the time.”

“Even when she’s not around?”

Makoto shivers. “She has spies everywhere.”

Rin laughs, even though if he knew the wrath of Haru’s grandmother he would not be laughing, and then becomes curious again. “Why your tongue?”

Maybe it’s Rin’s hair, tied up in a ponytail today. Maybe it’s the way he blushed earlier. Maybe it’s the way Makoto’s been _aching_ , ever since he met Rin, for something more than a light brush of Rin’s hand along his arm, or the way he looks at him in quiet moments at the shop late at night. But something draws him to, instead of giving a straight answer, to take Rin’s hand and gently run his tongue from the base of his palm and along his wrist, before pulling off and running the stud over his lips.

Rin’s eyes are wide, and Makoto begins to doubt himself. _I just licked his arm. Is that weird? That’s so weird. Fuck._

That’s before Rin steps from his chair, swinging a leg over Makoto’s to straddle him, then grabs his face with both hands and kisses him.

Rin moans into his mouth as Makoto’s tongue stud clacks across his teeth and presses on his tongue. Makoto tugs on Rin’s hair experimentally, and he throws his head back and sighs before leaning in and sucking on Makoto’s neck. In retaliation, Makoto pulls Rin’s shirt over his head, and then takes his own off, simply for more skin on skin contact. Clothes out of the way, Rin’s sharp teeth mark Makoto’s shoulder, and Makoto  picks him up and shoves him back against the wall and runs his tongue across his nipple, making him shiver. Makoto trails his tongue down Rin’s chest and towards his jeans as he drops from his chair onto his knees, hands pausing on the buttons as he looks up at Rin.

“Is this okay?”

Rin chokes out a “ _Yes_ ”, fingers scraping across Makoto’s scalp. He bites Rin’s hipbone as a punishment, making him sigh, before undoing his pants, pulling down his underwear, and running the piercing along the tip of his dick. Rin breathes out sharply, and Makoto is met by a dazed, but beautiful, expression. Makoto takes in the whole of the head of Rin’s dick, and is given an excellent opportunity to grope Rin’s ass as his knees buckle, hands tightening in Makoto’s hair. He slowly takes the rest of Rin’s dick before the feeling of his ass in his hands gives him a terrible idea. Pulling off, he picks Rin up again and places him on his desk, pulling his pants off and throwing them into a corner. Rin makes a confused noise which turns into a moan as Makoto runs his tongue across his hole.

“Makoto, _please…”_

Makoto takes Rin’s dick into his hand, pressing his tongue to Rin’s asshole again when the sound of paper rustling in the background makes him look up.

“What the _fuck_?!”

Rin jumps, turning around and going completely white. Makoto steps in front of him, giving Haru and the tall man he’s exchanging money with the angriest look he’s ever given.

“What are you _doing_ here?”

“Haruka wanted to see if you were here, and I was going to visit Rin.”

“Why are you giving him money?!” Rin snarls from behind Makoto, and Sousuke frowns, a contrast to Haru’s smirk.

“We took a bet on when you would fuck, and I won.”

“By a day!”

“Whatever.”

“Leave!” Rin says, at the same time Makoto says “You took bets?!”

Haru shrugs, tosses a bottle of lube that he’s pulled out of a pocket somewhere (Why is Makoto even friends with him?) and drags Sousuke out the back door with him.

“We need to lock that.”

“Yeah. But first,” Rin says, pulling him closer and biting him again, “You’re sexy when you’re angry.”

Makoto blushes and continues on.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun facts!  
> 1\. That much cinnamon is lethal, but fire cannot kill a Haru  
> 2\. I am aware that this has a shite title, yes  
> 3\. Makoto gets tattoos eventually- The star Rin drew, and a sunflower.  
> 4\. This was going to be short and rated T, but then things (Alex) happened  
> 5\. Haru's eyebrows are fine and Makoto has no freckles in canon, but really, who cares?  
> 6\. Haru carries lube around because he and Sousuke are fucking weird.  
> 7\. My tumblr is rinmatsuokka, come tell me my porn sucks.


End file.
